HÀ NỘI — Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corporation (Sabeco) on Monday announced that its board of directors had approved unrestricted foreign ownership.

According to Resolution No 111A/2018/NQ-HĐQT issued on October 30, the foreign ownership cap at Sabeco would be removed from the previous cap of 49 per cent.

Sabeco in August removed business lines which required foreign ownership caps, including trade advertising and tourism operation, to be able to approve unrestricted foreign ownership.

At the end of 2017, Vietnam Beverage, a subsidiary of Thai Bev, acquired more than 343.6 million shares in Sabeco from the Ministry of Industry and Trade in a deal worth around $5 billion – the biggest acquisition in Southeast Asia in three years.

After the deal, Thai Bev held a controlling stake of 54 per cent in Sabeco.

Establishing a legal entity in Việt Nam (Vietnam Beverage) was the way the Thai company avoided the foreign ownership cap of 49 per cent in Sabeco at that time.

In the first nine months of this year, Sabeco reported revenue of VNĐ25.5 trillion (US$1.1 billion), a rise of 7.8 per cent over the same period last year.

Pre-tax profit in that time dropped by more than six per cent to VNĐ3.3 trillion.

The company targeted to earn pre-tax profit of around VNĐ4 trillion this year, 19 per cent lower than last year.

At the end of this month, Sabeco will pay cash dividends of 20 per cent and it was estimated that the Thai company would receive VNĐ1.2 trillion.

In October, Sabeco paid cash dividends of 15 per cent.

Sabeco is the largest beverage company in Việt Nam, holding a market share of 40 per cent. — VNS